Photo/Illutration Yasushi Kaneko promotes use of the Individual Number Card, commonly known as My Number Card, in June 2022 when he was internal affairs minister. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The government is taking steps to expand the use of the Individual Number Card, commonly known as the My Number Card, and get more people to acquire it.

Seeing as administrative procedures need to be digitized, the government should bear in mind the public harbors deep-rooted concerns about the card being abused. In our view, it would be extremely inadvisable to forcibly accelerate usage of the card without first gaining the public’s trust.

The government will present a draft revision of the law on the use of numbers to identify a specific individual in administrative procedures during the current Diet session. The revision will expand the government’s discretionary power in determining the extent of paperwork or information inquiry for which the card can be used.

The revision will also enable the use of the My Number Card without rewriting the appended table of the law, if the matter is “related” to the matters shown on the table. As for the rules on the restriction of information that can be sought, they will be removed from the appended table of the law and downgraded to governmental and ministerial ordinances that do not require Diet deliberation.

Furthermore, the revision will expand the application of the My Number Card from the original three areas--social security, taxation and disaster relief--to procedures related with government certifications, car registry and foreign residents in Japan.

The My Number system will be an effective tool for verifying the identity of every e-filer. As a massive sum of money was invested to create the system, its utilization is meaningful if it brings greater convenience to people and also improves the efficiency of administrative procedures.

However, the wider the area of the card’s application, the greater the possibility of it being used for “information snooping” and other inappropriate purposes. On this point, a system for clearly defining the scope of applications on the appended table of the law should serve to reassure the public. Any facile deregulation must be avoided.

If the card is to be made usable for “related matters,” conditions and requirements for the use of the card must be clarified. Rigid restrictions are needed to limit the use to matters that can be readily deemed effectively identical to what is already on the appended table. It would be well worth considering to introduce a system whereby the appropriateness of the use will be judged in advance by independent third-party experts.

On the other hand, the government last year announced its decision to abolish the current health-care insurance certificate and integrate it with the My Number Card.

That decision was tantamount to forcing the public to acquire the My Number Card, despite the government’s previous reassurances that acquiring the card should be voluntary. This is utterly unacceptable.

The government so far has repeatedly granted “points,” usable to pay for shopping and other purposes, at great expense to urge people to get the card. But there is zero hope of attaining the target--practically 100 percent enrollment--before the end of the current fiscal year.

Instead of using the carrot-and-stick inducement, what the government ought to do now is to make the My Number system itself beneficial to everyone and allay their fears about possible abuse.

Without making such efforts, the government is simply trying to expand its discretionary power and encourage people to acquire the card. The outcome can only be to stiffen the public’s resolve to resist. And that is the sort of side effect the government needs to fully understand.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 5

Related News